Post navigation

Comments

Motor Mill Bridge Budget — 1 Comment

You probably already have this information at hand. Here’s an article from the Arlington News September 17, 1964.

familiar spot to area catfishermen is lofty Motor Mill, located on the Turkey river near Elkader. It stands as a fitting monument to one of Clayton County’s famous ghost towns. It is one of the last of a chain of
mills which once lined the Turkey River.Motor is reached by taking a
gravel road which leads off of the highway south of Elkader.
The mill looms up like a giant sentinel as one winds down from the bluffs into the picturesque valley.
Stretching across the river is an old but substantial steel bridge and just beyond the opposite entrance is the massive stone building.
A farm residence, a cooperage plant and other smaller stone buildings fit into a general picture.
The mill was started about 1845 by John Thompson. Starting
on a natural rock bottom, five foot thick walls were started with stone quarried from a nearby hill. The thickness of the walls was reduced as they went higher until they were only two feet thick at the 7th floor.
A double rail track was laid along the hillside. A drum at the top of the hill overwhich the cable ran operated the two cars that carried stone down to the masons. The weight of the full car going down, drew the empty car up to the quarry. When finished, the structure was 60 feet long and 85 feet high. It cost $90,000. Its builder claimed the mill would stand as
long as the adjacent cliffs from which the -stone walls were
quarried. It was considered “A Mill Architects Dream.”
With the start of the mill’s construction a town formed around it. Houses, a hotel, a cooperage and several taverns were built. The town was incorporated and given the name of Motor.
For a time the town of Motor thrived and was a lively town and it appeared to have such a important and promising future that the Dubuque and Minnesota Railway decided to extend its McGregor and Elkader narrow gauge track to the milling center. Steamboats came up the river from the Mississippi.
A flood washed out the railroad project and it was never finished. The old railway became one of lowas first one-way streets.
Too narrow for horse and wagons to pass it was decided to reserve mornings for north bound traffic (Motor to Elkader) and afternoons for south bound
(Elkader to Motor.) A succession of misfortunes brought an end to the booming Motor. First the flood washed out the railroad project and then
followed several crop failures due to the drought, chinch bugs, and grasshoppers. The mill was finally forced to cease operations
in the late 1870’s.
Only a few scattered rocks remain of the 200 foot dam which once stood 12 feet high. The huge water wheel’ has disappeared.
The old mill now still appears to be in an excellent state of preservation and is now used for farm storage.